Paper Mario and the Thousand Year Door is probably my favorite game of all time. Easily the best RPG combat I've ever played. I will always approve of any mention of it. More people need to play that **** .

Seriously? Lacks challenge? Completing the pit of 100 trials was and still is one of my proudest moments in gaming. And that final boss was no walk in the park either. Although I suppose if you're versed in turn based RPGs it would be a lot easier. I wasn't when I did my first playthrough.

Well, maybe i exxagurated, on the first playthrough i had trouble, especially with the shadow queen, but 2nd time round i knew what i was doing, and pit of 100 trials isn't totally without challenge so, i take that back, partly. most bosses were easy though.. except for Grubba (3rd star boss) i always found him to be an asshole.

I wish I could find a good ROM of it. Had it, got about halfway through the second level, and it crashes every time. So sad...I loved the first one and I really want to play this one. Pic completely unrelated.

First of all, there really isn't very much back tracking at all. Have you ever even played a JRPG before? Second of all, you do know that you don't have to fight everything you encounter, right? You can just avoid the enemy, and even if it starts a battle, you can just run away.

Yeah I know they are separate. Did the thousand year door have anything different from the original? Partners in time was the same combat system with a similar and equally terrible storyline. The combat system was the exact same thing as the original except the babies replaced some of the actions/animations. Completely disappointing. I loved paper mario, but I'v always put off the thousand year door cas i'v been worried that it will be so bad or boring that I'll hate it and never play paper mario again.

Yeah, I have to agree with indecisivejew. TYD was the best in the series and in my opinion one of the best games on the gamecube, if not the best. The game has a darker, edgier, or as Yahtzee from Zero Punctuation put it, anarchic humor to it compared to the first, which I absolutely love. If you liked the first Paper Mario game, play TYD. It not only adds to the original, but also improves it.

Also, if anyone wonders, the TYD can be just as enjoyable if you haven't played the first. There are noticeable connections, but the plot remains independent. Everything's great: story, characters, scenes, gameplay, audiovisuals, combat mechanism, minor arc stories, etc. If only my dad didn't sell it at a garage sale for under a buck.

You shouldn't play Sticker Star though. That one really did ruin Paper Mario. I mean, the Paper Mario on the Wii wasn't great, but it was different. Sticker Star tried to be the same, and it was lesser because of it, a lot like Partners in Time.

I absolutely love all of the paper mario's including sticker star, you do have to realise that the DS is a small system with limited capabilities so sticker star had to be squished down, though the new combat system with 1 use stickers instead of badges is a little meh, the overall gameplay and re-view of oldschool mario style is really great.

To me sticker star didnt fit into to the series.( spoilers ahead)
Majority of the characters had barely any personality, ms. mowz alone had more personality that all other characters jn sticker star.kirsti was so annoying that I was happy when she left. The humor was very bland compared to other games of the series. Bosses could be made so very easy by finding the right sticker which just killed the Creativity of the bosses. ill admit the blooper boss going with beat of the background music was amazing but the fact that you could beat him so easily was a bummerHe'll i found myself using the same three stickers for a big chunk of the game. sure i get they had to make some limitations but It just did not feel like a paper Mario game. It felt like a Mario RPGs that they just happened to slap paper Mario title to it. It lacked the world previously given by other paper Mario games.
Tl;dr sticker star was a very meh game that failed to live up touts series

My biggest problem was the absence of partners, or any characters really. I thought the combat was fine, but getting rid of worthwhile people to talk to was what really irked me. Plus going back to the traditional WORLD TWO HAS TO BE A DESSERT AND WORLD 3 HAS TO BE ICE THEMED instead of the creative locations in the previous three games was a let down.

Exactly. No partners was just horrible... And yes, the lack of characters. There was almost nothing to do outside of the main story. Every character was either a shopkeeper, a toad that you'd rescued/helped somewhere, or a toad that you'd eventually have to rescue/help somewhere.
I sincerely hope that they go back to the formula that truly made Paper Mario and Paper Mario: TYD so great. Keep the combat, keep the partners (I'd prefer the way they've been in those two games with the varying species and such, but I'd even settle for Super Paper Mario partner-types), and add back all the extra content that made the games feel full and complete. Sticker Star was so empty...
But in reality, I would kill for a Super Paper Luigi.

Pic related. It's how the entirety of Sticker Star felt. Minus the partner.

World 3 is always a water world you uneducated **** . Anyways yeah, no partner system is saddening but you do still have that compnaion sticker, also it would be awks to collect 2 sets of stickers for a pet..... and I meant more the world overveiw and level select, brings back the memories.

Why would you be worried about that? Did you look into the game at all? It was the best received of any game in the franchise. It took the already great combat system and refined it and added on interactions with an audience, more stylish moves, more special abilities, and more timed perfect execution bonuses. Every move for mario and all his partners has its own timing based mini game, and there are a ton more moves than in the first game, especially because of all the badges. There are also a lot more enemy types, but the biggest draw to 2 over 1 is the amazingly clever environments, characters, and dialogue. If you liked the first one at all, the second one is just a huge improvement on it with a better combat system, better environments, and a better story.